Brief Description

The Student Engagement in Schools Questionnaire (SESQ) is a self-report questionnaire consisting of 109 Likert-type statements that assess students’ engagement within the school environment. The statements are organized into four core components: School Engagement, Motivation, Social Contexts, and Academic Outcomes. Within these, there are 13 thematic domains and 15 subdomains. Students respond on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Completion takes approximately 35 minutes. In the pilot study, a 33-item subset was used, focusing on the three main indicators of engagement: Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive.

Purpose

The SESQ aims to provide a multidimensional assessment of student engagement in school life, offering researchers and education professionals a psychometrically validated tool that can be used to identify needs, prevent school failure, and promote school belonging and success.

Scoring Method

Students respond to each item using a five-point Likert scale. Scoring involves analyzing the individual subscales such as Emotional Engagement (e.g., enjoyment of school and classes), Behavioral Engagement (e.g., persistence, effort, and extracurricular involvement), and Cognitive Engagement (e.g., learning strategies). The mean scores for these groups of statements are compared based on theoretically defined dimensions.

Validity

The tool’s validity is supported by factor analysis, which demonstrated alignment between the items and the theoretical dimensions. The factor structure revealed five distinct factors explaining 61.45% of the variance. Model fit indices (CFI, RMSEA, SRMR) met the standards established in the literature, particularly for the five-factor model.

Reliability

Internal consistency coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) for the SESQ subdomains range from 0.65 to 0.95, with most values exceeding 0.80, indicating strong internal reliability. The only subscale falling below the acceptable threshold was the Attribution subscale (α = 0.65), which requires revision. The average intercorrelation was 0.34.

Data Analysis and Use

The pilot study was conducted with a sample of 428 students from schools in California, including reliability testing, factor structure analysis, and comparisons with other measures (SESQ and TERF-N). Results showed that students’ self-reports (SESQ) offered a more nuanced view of engagement, while teacher assessments (TERF-N) aligned with emotional and behavioral engagement but not cognitive engagement. The SESQ is recommended for early identification of student needs and for designing interventions based on individual engagement profiles.

References

Appleton, J.J., Christenson, S.L., & Furlong, M.J. (2008). Student engagement with school: Critical conceptual and methodological issues of the construct. Psychology in the Schools, 45, 369–386.
Fredricks, J.A., Blumenfeld, P.C., & Paris, A.H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59–109.
Hart, S.R., Stewart, K., & Jimerson, S.R. (2011). The Student Engagement in Schools Questionnaire (SESQ) and the Teacher Engagement Report Form (TERF-N): Examining the preliminary evidence. Contemporary School Psychology, 15, 67–79.
Jimerson, S.R., Campos, E., & Greif, J.L. (2003). Toward an understanding of definitions and measures of school engagement and related terms. The California School Psychologist, 8, 7–27.
Lam, S.F., & Jimerson, S.R. (2008). Exploring student engagement in schools internationally: Consultation paper. Chicago, IL: International School Psychologist Association.